Oh, NASA

Posted on October 28, 2009 by HappyGoth

You’re so awesome.

I’ve been watching the Guild pretty religiously, and so then added Felicia Day to my RSS feed so that I wouldn’t miss updates. Today, she posted about this excellent NASA video, which I now share with you:

 

I love science so much.

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Chain stitch skills – I has them.

Posted on October 27, 2009 by HappyGoth

Well, it appears as though I’ve gotten the hang of this.

I filled the “flower” shape and then free-handed a little leaf to the bottom, and I am really pleased with how even the stitches are. I didn’t even catch the silk on itself too much this time! Here’s a close-up of the leaf (the color is way off, but that’s not the important part):

There are some seriously tiny stitches in there. I kid you not. And then I filled the little blobby thing off to the side:

I have no idea what it’s supposed to be, other than an example of my progress along the tambour learning curve.

And so then I got really ambitious, and looked through my block-printing book (the one from the Kelsey Museum), and chose a design I thought I could modify to somewhat resemble the patterns I’ve seen in Mewari miniatures (one I haven’t scanned myself, but is from the Caurapanasika). I have a fair amount of creative license here, since extant pieces of fabric are pretty rare, and the miniatures don’t show a lot of detail. The one I like has these big, round, flower-shapes on the ghagra of one of the women, and the blank area is filled with curlicues. There are some printed patterns in the book that sort of match (apparently block printing was a cheap alternative to brocaded or embroidered fabrics, so I don’t think this is a gigantic leap of logic). This is what I’ve got so far:

I am very pleased with how it looks. It has taken me a little longer than I’d hoped, but that’s probably because I’ve been watching TV while working on it.

I really need to get my own tambour needle.

 

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Booooooooook.

Posted on October 26, 2009 by HappyGoth

Hee hee. See what I did there? I made a bad pun. I know you’re super impressed.Anyway. I am frantically scrambling to make my house presentable for many costumed folks (not superheroes, though that would be totally awesome) and so while I did some embroidery over the weekend, it escaped my notice to photograph it to share (probably I missed this in between telling the husband which parts of the house needed his help and then going through boxes and boxes of papers I have saved for some unknown reason). So then I did some blog-reading this morning and found this gem of a video, via Drawn!From the discovery of the 1898 International Dictionary to linotyping the entries to printing the last print on the vandercook to cutting the fingertabs of the deluxe edition, this video gives a quick overview of the process of creating the Pictorial Webster’s fine press edition.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about "Booooooooook.", posted with vodpod

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Like a bunny

Posted on October 23, 2009 by HappyGoth

With only three spots, my internet is spotty. So no posts until I get that squared away (which will hopefully be tomorrow, and then I’ll do some uber-updating).

Hang in there.

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Why I knit, #31

Posted on October 22, 2009 by HappyGoth

Gentleman's Lozenge Socks by adamknits.

(Not any pair of mine, but this photo perfectly captures what I mean. And I commend flickr user adamknits for knitting them. Man socks, that’s a lot of sock knitting, and the reason why my husband doesn’t have his own pair yet.)

Warm. Toasty. Feet.

I had not properly appreciated this wondrous thing until we moved into a 1930s era Crafstman-style house, complete with single-paned windows and drafty doors and big, heat-sucking chimneys (four of them!). It costs a lot to heat our house.

So what do I do when I am cold but don’t want to turn up the heater? I don my lovingly hand-knit wool socks, of which I now have four pair! I have lots of stash yarn for more, too. They’re really great. I wear them with a pair of fleece workout pants and big fluffy slippers, and it’s pretty decently warm. It also helps that my laptop sits over a heat vent, when the cat isn’t covering it (he does that well).

And since I only knit socks at the moment, I suppose this is a good thing.

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Navel-gazing, the short form

Posted on October 20, 2009 by HappyGoth

I was reading the Big B’s blog (he is so fun, and a wealth of information about Indian culture) and he mentioned in today’s post that he had heard a discussion about the growing trend of women in Western countries who sent their eggs and a partner’s sperm to be implanted in women in India. The fetus is then carried to term by the surrogate, and collected by its parents upon delivery.

Weeeeeeeeeird and creepy.

Have none of the people paying for this ever read The Handmaid’s Tale? Because I think they might think differently. I mean, the situation is (arguably) voluntary, but no less creepy.

(why is it creepy?) Continue reading →

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I can sleep now, I think.

Posted on October 20, 2009 by HappyGoth

Which is weird to say on a Tuesday, but there you have it.

What I did this weekend:

1. The Little 5 Points Halloween Parade. Oh, man. Oh, man oh man. Please remind me next time that I decide to wear my Rajasthani garb in 40-degree temperatures (plus wind and drizzle) that this is not, in fact, a wise idea and that no matter how many layers of tights I wear under my ghagra the top is still uncovered and therefore very cold. Lea (dang, still no blog, but we love her anyhow) bought me a lovely warm cup of Turkish coffee, which helped a little, but by the time we got home my fingers were very stiff. The parade was awesome. It was at least 3 times larger than I expected it to be, which meant that we ran out of candy pretty quickly. We handed out most of our flyers (I think), so hopefully we’ll get a curious person or two who will love the SCA and increase our numbers a little. If not, we had fun and looked great. We had tiny dogs and a chariot! And fencers (who fell down a lot, on purpose)! Next time, if it is cold again, I’ll wear Mughal. I learned my lesson there.

2. Played board games with the CG and Robbing Peter. Settlers of Catan brings out the worst/best in people.

3. Taught Lea to bind a Persian book. I AM SO PROUD. No, really. We did a shopping trip for supplies (and ran into a very large crowd what was blocking of much of Peachtree Street) and then bound a book, and it turned out so well. She chose a lovely turquoise and gold endpaper, and it looked awesome with the black leather binding of the cover. I think I have hooked another person. I will post photos later, once I take them.

That was pretty much it, but I am wiped afterward. Yesterday was crazy-busy, and then I did some more book binding (I have the chevron technique down, but I can’t get the pattern to show up – I think I still need to work on the number of warp threads I’m using and the material I’m using for the weft, as the silk is too flexible to lay properly).

And lastly, can anyone figure this out?

IMG_4399

Because, well, I’m at a loss. The hood had a big Shrek on it. But seriously, Shrek? Bad. Ass. Or something.

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It’s Diwali

Posted on October 17, 2009 by HappyGoth

Which is suddenly exciting to me (I do not wonder at this, though).

And since it’s also the weekend, here’s a video that is trippy and combines my two greatest cultural obsessions into one strange, beautiful thing:

If you’re in Atlanta, and you need something to do, come see the SCA march in the L5P parade at 4. You won’t regret it.

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Sorry.

Posted on October 16, 2009 by HappyGoth

I lied about that posting, only not really because the internet was mysteriously nonfunctional when I got home after class. So here’s the make-up:

chain-stitch progress by you.

I did a lot of embroidery at Wednesday’s SCA meeting. I even tried to show Lea how to do it, but I’m not sure how successful I was. I think that needs to be more hands-on.

But I seem to have gotten to where I can talk and embroider simultaneously, and I did this great bit of tiny little stitches:

chain-stitch progress, the good stuff by you.

(Which are blurry, and covered by the now-multiplying camera lens spots.)

You’ll have to trust me that the back is just as neat as the front, which it is.

chain-stitch progress, eye detail by you.

This is that “eye” piece I showed off before, but with another row of stitches. My stitch calibration is still a little wonky, but it’s getting better!

And so I continue to make progress. With the help of Master Lorenzo (who is my new IM friend), I’ve discovered a lot of stuff on pachisi, which is the original game that parcheesi and ludo are based on. Most of the boards are fabric and are elaborately embroidered. I think I just might make one to practice on before I do the skirt fabric.

This weekend is the L5P Halloween parade, in which the local SCA group will be marching. I am not looking forward to braving the cold in my Rajasthani garb, but I’ll make do. I’ll probably bring a big warm wrap. Brr. The next sewing project will be something that’s appropriate for winter wear, although I had wanted to do European in the wintertime. However, I’ve gotten so into my new persona that I’m not as excited about that anymore. I’m thinking Mughal for the winter. Yeah. Silks, pants and long sleeves for the win.

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More internets

Posted on October 15, 2009 by HappyGoth

Yesterday I

Learned how to use JavaScript and got better with HTML and CSS. I am moving along quite nicely!

Did some more and better embroidery.

Took my camera cable out of my purse but didn’t replace it.

So you’ll have to wait  until this evening for my photographic update. But there will be one! I swear! Just as soon as I’m done with class!

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